If Ryan Tannehill and Mike Wallace don’t light up the Cleveland Browns in the season-opener, don’t fret.

That was a message Tannehill sent Wednesday night during a conference call to field questions from Dolphins season-ticket holders. Wallace, the speedster from the Pittsburgh Steelers, was the big free-agent signing acquired by Miami to add a much-needed deep threat.

Tannehill

“Whether he catches a touchdown in the first game or it’s not until the fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth game, I have a lot of confidence in him,” Tannehill said. “It’s not a matter of, if we don’t get started early, then it’s not going to be a good year.”

That doesn’t mean, of course, that Tannehill wouldn’t mind slicing apart the Browns to set the tone for 2013.

“Then that kind of jump-starts the year, so we’ll definitely be working toward that,” Tannehill said.

Tannehill said Wallace, who averaged eight TD receptions over his four seasons in Pittsburgh, isn’t causing the Dolphins to overhaul their offense, only to make sensible adjustments.

“I think you have to be able to mildly shift your offense in order to best utilize the pieces that you have,” Tannehill said. “Obviously we’re not going to completely change our offense for any one person or any few people. They have to be able to kind of play within the system. But yeah, maybe there’s a few plays that we put in here, adjust a play there. There’s going to be slight changes that you make to try to accommodate the guys that you have. I think that we had some big guys brought in this off-season and we want to use them.”

Tannehill credited two Dolphins predecessors for where he is today: Chad Pennington and Matt Moore. Tannehill worked with Pennington twice this off-season and “he’s been a big help to me,” Tannehill said.

Last year at this time, Tannehill was prepping for a QB competition with David Garrard and Matt Moore. Garrard got hurt and was cut, but Moore remains a Dolphin.

“He handled it with so much class,” Tannehill said of Moore. “He’s such a good guy. … I can’t say enough about Matt Moore and the veteran presence he’s been.”

Tannehill rushed for 211 yards and a 4.3 average last season to keep defenses honest.

“It’ll always be a small part of our offense,” he said. “I don’t think that we’re going to rely heavily on my feet. … But with the evolution of the NFL, how things are trending at this point, it’s a good switch-up to have in your back pocket.”

Likewise, he said his ability to throw on the run is “a good element to have” to keep defenders from teeing off on him.

Random other items:

* Tannehill said he and everyone on the team is always free to take advantage of coaches’ open-door policies to suggest things, but joked, “whether they listen or not, that’s up for discussion.” He added, “I think as I continue to build trust with the coaches, I have to do my job well for a long period of time before they’re just going to let me have the reins.”

* Tannehill revealed that his heroes growing up included Superman, since he’d love to be able to fly, but showing deft ability to think on his feet, quickly added that his quarterback heroes included a Marino guy you may know.

* The call ended with a probing question from Colin, a 9-year-old, who asked what Tannehill’s favorite foods were. The QB said he loves Italian food (spaghetti, lasagna) and Mexican food (tacos, enchiladas), then copped out by adding, “I eat pretty much everything.”